In front of the demolished Chen Family Ancestral Hall, day after day, night after day, the water in the secret passage was finally completely drained away.
Ye Zheng ran to the old archway to find Shen Lie.
There is a stage behind the old archway, which was transformed from the old Taoist temple. At this time, the backyard of the stage is crowded and there are people everywhere.
Ye Zheng tied his horse to the lion stone pier outside the door. When he came in, he saw Dai Yu standing with his arms crossed under the eaves inside the door.
Dai Yuzheng looked irritated. When he saw Ye Zheng, he asked, "Is the water clean?"
"Well, this is..." Ye Zheng looked towards the crowd.
"They are all the village chiefs and wise men nearby," Dai Yu said. "Earlier, the young master asked Du Xuan to find out which other families in Hengxiang were as strange as the Chen family. Now that these people heard that the young master was out of the city, they came one after another. ."
"So many people." Ye Zheng frowned and looked at the courtyard.
Accompanying Shen Lie in the main room were Du Xuan and Ping Yuefeng, as well as Gao Zhou and Zhang Ji from the Xia Jiajun.
These village sages did not provide many useful clues. Most of them were here to make friends. There were large and small packages of gifts piled in front of the hall door. Some were subtle, many were straightforward, and many of them came to promote themselves. The daughter or the daughter of a clan member claimed that it would be okay to be a concubine. Not only did she recommend it to Shen Lie, but also Du Xuan and others who were with Shen Lie.
After half a day, everyone was exhausted, and Shen Lie simply hid in a corner.
Ye Zheng and Dai Yu came in from the outside and searched for a long time before they found Shen Lie on the left side of several dilapidated clay statues standing outside the crowd.
He was reading a book with his eyes lowered, facing the window and his back to the lobby. Because there was an incense table behind him as a cover, and he was wearing a Yunmen color long coat cut from Fuyue brocade, the style was simple and elegant, and the color was plain, so He was quietly hiding in a corner, and no one could notice him unless he looked carefully.
"Master." The two men walked over and called out in a low voice.
Shen Lie turned around, saw Ye Zheng, and said, "Is the secret passage ready?"
"Well, that's it. The snakes and mice are ready."
After saying that, Ye Zheng glanced at the book in Shen Lie's hand. It was a slightly worn genealogy, which contained the Chen family tree.
Ye Zhengyi was delighted: "Master, is this Chen family the Chen family from the Chen family ancestral hall?"
Shen Lie smiled lightly: "Let's go first."
The sun is high, summer insects are chirping, the old monastery is not a square building, a low stone wall in the south has collapsed, the large square bricks on the ground are cracked and wrinkled, and the sand is serious.
They came out of the small door, and there were people outside the small door.
Outside the lush weeds was a small river, with many boats floating on it. When those who were talking saw Shen Lie coming out of the small door, they all stopped talking and looked at him.
Everyone who had seen him praised him after coming out, but now that they had seen it with their own eyes, everyone knew that the rumored handsomeness was not a lie. This dull and hot afternoon seemed to be brightened by him.
A woman about fifty years old looked up from under a locust tree by the river and saw them walking towards the bamboo hut to the east. She got up from the ground and stared at Shen Lie's back without blinking, her eyes showing joy.
I don't know if the man is twenty years old or not. He has the aristocratic look of a young man. He is tall and handsome, tall and thin. His movements are very graceful and graceful, and he looks elegant, but he is restrained and steady, neither hurried nor slow, and he is calm and unmoved by the eyes left and right. Peaceful, more noble and elegant.
The woman hurriedly picked up a basket of eggs at her feet and quickly chased after him: "General Shen!"
Shen Lie and others stopped and looked back.
"General Shen!" The woman looked at him happily, her eyes tracing those sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, "Oh, it's really you!"
Shen Lie didn't remember seeing her: "Do you know me?"
"Are you Mr. Shen of the Shen family in Yunliang?" the woman said.
Shen Lie paused slightly and said, "Yes."
"He is really from the Shen family of Yunliang!" The woman was very happy, "Then, Deputy General Shen Shuangcheng, is your father?"
Shen Lie frowned slightly, and Dai Yu and Ye Zheng beside him immediately lowered their faces and stepped forward to speak, but saw Shen Lie nodding: "Yes."
"Oh, what a coincidence!" The woman hurriedly picked up the egg basket in her hand, "I have been separated from Vice-General Shen for more than 20 years, and the old woman thought she would never see Vice-General Shen again in this life. This is such a bad time. Forgive me!"
The Shen family of Yunliang is extremely wealthy and has been a businessman for generations. Like the Zuilu Guo family, they do not want to be tainted by the power of the government, and they are independent from the temple and have a foothold in the world.
The meaning of the ancestral precepts is to have both sides. It is enough to maintain good relations with all the families in the government or in the opposition for hundreds of years. You only need to protect wealth and honor, not fame and fortune, and there is no need to seek fame and glory for your ancestors.
But when Shen Shuangcheng was young, he was brave and powerful. He liked to compete with others in his skills. He was proficient in all eighteen kinds of weapons, including swords, guns, swords and halberds, axes, axes, hooks and forks.
Unwilling to be trapped in Yunliang, he went to work as a ranger, and finally joined the Cunzheng camp in Jiangnan. In just three years, he became a deputy general.
Later, Shen Lie's grandmother Cui threatened to die, and Shen Shuangcheng had to resign from the military and return to Yunliang.
He was also lucky. In the second year after he returned to Yunliang, the military structure of the Great Qian Dynasty changed, and Cunzheng Camp, along with the other six military camps, was merged into the Jiangnan Barracks.
At that time, Zhuang Mengyao was just the lieutenant general next to Li Zhixi. Later, Li Zhixi suddenly died of a serious illness. Zhuang Mengyao replaced Li Zhixi as the general of the Jiangnan Barracks due to his many years of network management.
As soon as he came to power, Zhuang Mengyao worked with the party to eliminate dissidents. If Shen Shuangcheng had not retired from the army early, he would most likely have been "liquidated" together with the old Cunzheng camp.
Shen Lie didn't know much about Shen Shuangcheng's past. He only heard about it from others, especially his mother who talked the most during her lifetime.
But obviously, the mother's knowledge was very limited. At least Shen Lie had no idea that Shen Shuangcheng had ever been to Hengxiang. He also didn't know that Shen Shuangcheng had previously said that Shen Shuangcheng was chasing and killing the Qiao family when he was young.
The joy in the woman's eyes could not be hidden at all. Her tanned hands were holding the basket of eggs. The basket was full of eggs, at least fifty or sixty.
Seeing that she kept handing it over like this, Shen Lie looked at Ye Zheng.
Ye Zheng was stunned, paused, stepped forward and took the eggs.
"Thank you for the gift," Shen Lie said, "Where do you live and what is your last name?"
"The old woman's surname is Li, Mu Zi Li! The wood is on top, the wood is on the bottom!" The old woman laughed, "This is what Vice General Shen taught me personally back then! Haha, my hometown lives in Changtou, Beichang, Hengxiang. Unfortunately, the one in front of me I fell into the river and drowned. I have been a widow for ten years, and only two years ago I married here in the south, keeping company with an old bachelor."
Her smile became a little shy, and after she finished speaking, she thought to herself: "Ah, by the way, how have you been, Vice Admiral Shen, these past few years? How is your health?"
Shen Lie didn't know, so he didn't answer and asked, "How did you get to know him back then?"
"It was a coincidence," the old woman said, as if it was yesterday. "He seemed to have received some military order to chase a group of people back. The group ran into the Tao'an Mountains in the north, so he led his troops there. We chased him in. It is said that he almost got lost inside. Of the team of more than 30 people, only six people came out alive! It happened that the short-lived man in front of me went to collect medicine and was rescued by the way. This deputy general Shen..." Old woman He smiled again and said, "He is really handsome. How have we people in the mountains ever seen such a handsome man? He is still a young general! So, I will remember him all my life."
Speaking of this, she looked Shen Lie up and down with her eyes, shook her head and exclaimed: "Young Master Shen's face is so similar to him, no, no, he is more beautiful than him. Back then, haha... Back then, Vice General Shen He also joked that if I have a son and a half in the future, he will treat me as my in-laws, haha... But, I have never given birth to a baby in my life."
Shen Lie said "hmm" and said, "Sister-in-law Li, I still have something to do. I'll accept the eggs first. Thank you for your kindness."
"You're welcome, you're welcome," the old woman said quickly, "And please call me Mrs. Li. That's what Vice General Shen called me back then. Otherwise, you can call me Mrs. Li, haha!"
Shen Lie's face remained calm and he said calmly: "I'll say goodbye first, Sister-in-law Li."
Everyone around them was looking at them.
After Shen Lie and Dai Yu, Ye Zheng turned around and left. Everyone he knew and didn't know gathered around and asked the old woman what was going on.
Dai Yu looked back at them, then looked at the basket in Ye Zheng's hand and said, "Master, these eggs..."
"Send someone to protect her. There is no guarantee that she will not be targeted by those people," Shen Lie said in a deep voice, "and prepare some silver and cloth to send to her home."
"Well, good!" Dai Yu nodded, "It should be easy to find out."
